Media and Family | ||
Media and Family By Aliye Satılmışoğlu The real danger is inside our homes Media is a concept that includes all kinds of verbal, written, printed, visual texts and images and various communication means. This concept covers printed mass communication means such as newspapers, magazines, brochures; visual-auditory means such as internet; auditory means such as radio; visual means such as billboards… etc. The main function of media must be informing, educating, entertaining, and establishing all kinds of social relationships. Nowadays visual and auditory communication channels are more effective than written ones. Media has become the seeing eye and hearing ear of people. Of course there are honest media institutions suitable for this aim and working for the benefit of people and society. However, some media institutions knowing the power of media ‘consciously ‘ try to influence people by brainwashing method. They convert worldly realities into mediatic realities distorting them by false and missing information or exaggeration. Gradually media is broadening its influence area and enlarging its effect on individuals and society by penetrating into almost all areas of human life. Internet, in the early 60s was developed as a military project on demand of Ministry of Defence of USA in order to realize a communication among military computers. In the early 1970s, after allowing their universities to use this facility, it has become more prevalent. After the invention of radio, television and internet, when looked at their reaching period to 50 million users, radio in 38 years, television in 13 years and internet in 5 years have become widespread. At present, according to internet world statistics, 1 billion 734 million people, the 25,6 % of the world population is using the internet. The number of internet users between the years 2000-2009 went up approximately 400%. Multinational companies developing with capitalistic production concept encourage consumption through their productions and deliver their own ideology; life and entertainment culture to underdeveloped or developing countries. Such media keeps its existence through pornography and advertisements and cultural imperialism is carried out by means of media. The fact that both communication and entertainment culture are shaped by these sectors leads us to see the world and ourselves from their points of view. Immoral entertainment culture is made common thus making people and communities lose their own values, cultural and moral aspects rapidly. Do you think it can be a coincidence that people ranging from Eskimos to Mongolians or Moroccans to Australians all like hamburger and cola? Internet, as we call ‘cyber world’ has become an inseperable part of our daily lives. Energy consumed by 2 billions of computers to get on the internet as well as millions of consistently renewed computers are sent to trash. According to Alex Wissner, physicist at Harward University, at each entering into an internet page and at every second spent on the internet cause nearly 0,02 gram and one reserach made on the search engines cause 0,2 gram emergence of carbon dioxide. According to 2008 statistics, from only one search engine, only in USA, 235 million research is realized and this is equal to carbon dioxide amount released by 1000 automobiles at every 200 kilometres, which cause a change in the structure of the atmosphere. This means that in the long term, we will not be able to breathe. Cyber world, internet is a giant sector creating technology trashes impossible to recyle. Urgent precautions must be taken. Life of human beings, plants and animals is in danger. It shouldn’t be forgotten that every unnecessary clicking will cause a 0,02 gram carbon dioxite release somewhere we can never know. Also, radiation caused by such devices open the way to many diesases first of which is cancer. Everyday diseases related to radiation highly increase especially among children and young people. In the World War II, when the first atom bomp was dropped (to Hiroshima and Nagasaki) 100 thousand people died. This slaughter was a painful end in the short term. In the medium term, those cities have become uninhabitable and Japan lost the war. In the long term, armless and legless children started to come to the world because the radiation and various diseases started to emerge and in the first placeis cancer.The effects still continue. Chernobly nuclear disaster is still affecting my country in a similar way. Opposite to the short term effects of atom bomb, the effect of the cyber world (internet, TV) is the death of millions of people slowly. The inflence of cyber world is mostly seen in the medium or long term. In the medium term children disconnected to their moral roots, indifferent to their own history and their own personality and deprived of feelings come into existence and in the long term, as a result of the one by one change in the individuals, the society as a whole degenerates. Since this is a systematic and slow change, people cannot notice it. What people see and hear makes an impression in the subconscious. Feeding subconscious deeply affects human life. Cyber world affects especially children and young people’s subconscious , their behaviours and mental functions hence changing their life perception and attitudes. People sitting before the cyber world defencelessly look at life and events from its point of view, take whatever they see in the screen as model, speak, entertain and lead their life just as they see in it. Today, nations do not have to use tanks or cannons to commit assimilation. They are doing this through media slowly and systematically. Under ‘globalization’ slogans, masses of people, speaking, wearing, eating and living as prototypes, focused on materialism, without ideals or aims and inclined towards violence are formed. As a result of deliberate transformation programmes, experienced on people from their childhood, by promising fake paradises, they are imposed to the ideas of ‘better life, more comfort, more money, earning easily and quickly without working rather than earning by working, violating every value for the sake of consuming and profit. At every event, sexual references are made, hundreds of messages which make people cheaper and cheaper like ‘self benefit comes first’, and ideas of selfishness and wastefulness are penetrated into people. Slaughters are shown as self defence, injustices are as justice, faults are as truth; especially children and young people are chosen as target group. People have been made masses without characters, incapable of thinking deeply, interpreting events appropriately and deprived of being able to focus on essential issues of mankind, do not have any aims, emptied, could not realize themselves, adopt other cultures, far from morality and as if made numb. It is very easy to manipulate such societies. Would you like to be a robot? People are made robots through media. Or would you like to be a Mouse? One day, through cyber world just as in The Pied Piper of Hamelin people will all be directed by the will and orders of some people as if a magic is made on them Why people still cannot abandon cyber world although its harms have been written for years. According to psychologist Michael G. Conner, the more we learn new and exciting things the more change in the chemistry of our brain occurs. When we enjoy and feel excited about what we are doing, a chemical substance called dopamine is secreted. The more we secrete this chemical, the more we are addicted, we cannot think of anything else and become indifferent to our environment. In his research, pyschologist Conner shows that people surfing in the internet for two hours a day or more than that are at the risk of being addicted to internet (except bankers and internet marketers etc.) Internet addiction is an illness and definitely requires medical and pshychological treatment. In many countries around the world, treatment centers are being opened to treat internet and video game addictives. Unfortunately, these centers are mostly filled by young patients between the ages 14-24. Internet addiction is not different from gambling and alcohol addiction. Children are the most fragile and defenceless members of a society. Media abuse children as tools in advertisements, films and soap operas or as news materials. This way they increase their rates and earn billions, thanks to them. Children are exploited and hurt not only emotionally but also physically. If we suppose that a child watches TV on average for 3 hours every day, this means that this child spends 1.100 hours in front of TV in a year. Human brain is convenient to be shaped when people are born grows interactively with the environment. Feelings which make us human flourish at a warm family atmosphere, with love and good communication among family members. The most important nutrition for a child is love. Children, raised without love, exposed to violence, living in an unhappy and peaceless family atmosphere are easy to tend to addiction for internet, TV, drug use, gambling and alcohol. To be Continued....
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